Two-time Academy Award® winner Mario Puzo is known around the world for his brilliant book The Godfather, widely considered the finest novel ever written about the Mafia. Two years before Puzo published that iconic work, he released Six Graves to Munich under the pseudonym Mario Cleri. During World War II, intelligence officer Michael Rogan lost everything —including his family—to brutal Nazi interrogators. Now 10 years have passed, and Michael is returning to Europe to exact his revenge.

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Publisher's Summary

Two-time Academy Award® winner Mario Puzo is known around the world for his brilliant book The Godfather, widely considered the finest novel ever written about the Mafia. Two years before Puzo published that iconic work, he released Six Graves to Munich under the pseudonym Mario Cleri. During World War II, intelligence officer Michael Rogan lost everything —including his family—to brutal Nazi interrogators. Now 10 years have passed, and Michael is returning to Europe to exact his revenge.

This is all about revenge and is an interesting concept. If seven guys day after day tortured you, tortured and killed your wife, shot you in the back of the head while laughing at you and then thinking you were dead threw your body on a stack of bodies, could you sleep at night knowing they were enjoying life.

The main character who has a steel plate in his head and many medical problems, due to the torture he underwent, is more bothered by the humiliation he underwent then the actual torture or disfigurement of his body.

This was written by MP under a different name and before he became famous, so few people know about it. It is very well written, thought provoking, and keeps your attention. It is only five hours long, because that is how long it takes to tell the story (No fillers or unneeded material). There is blood and guts, but only as that is what is needed to tell the story. I recommend this book

I came to this by way of Philip Kerr and his Berlin cycle. Fits perfectly into the head space I've been inhabiting while traveling through Germany this year. There's so much knowledge and pathos to be gleaned from this time of madness, barbarism and simple banality. Puzo frames it all through the lens of fanatic heroism and his characters come to life, contorted, complex life. I certainly know what era I'm diving into next: Puzo's time of Omertà.

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